Even in the middle of yet another crisis in the unhappy Middle East, Americans need to keep their eyes on the countries in which humanity’s fate in the 21st century will be hammered out. Land policy in India is a bigger deal than sectarian politics in Syria; we need to keep our eyes on the big picture.

Anyway, the Indian government is incompetent, corrupt isn't news. Falling currency could be good for Indian businesses because it could benefit our exports (like sophisticated mangoes, that we exchange for Harley Davidson motorcycles) but the Food Security Bill, The Land Reform Bill and various "pleas" from the finance minister, prime minister to cut down our petrol/diesel consumption and the petroleum ministries proposal to shutdown petrol stations for 12hrs in the night are far more ... er.. I can't find the right word... fill it in yourself.

And the tragedy is, this government is going to be re-elected in 2014. So, yeah.. India is doomed.

Oh, and we stopped importing oil from Iran at the behest of our American friends, who gave us one Boeing C17 Globemaster aircraft last week in return. And any deficit we make by buying expensive oil from the Saudis cannot be offset by importing from Iran because "teh Axis of evil WMD ZOMG syndrome." And American sanctions._________________There is no guarantee a stupid Dalai Lama won’t come next -- Dalai Lama

In India the government has wide powers of eminent domain. Without the convenience of government organization and its powers of eminent domain to force unwilling holdouts to sell, it would difficult if not impossible for private organizations to get the land for big projects. It’s not at all clear that a “free market” in land would lead to anything but the forced dispossession of hundreds of thousands and even millions of poor farmers and their families.

Anyone else do a double take when you read this? The problem of forced dispossession is solved by eminent domain? Say what?_________________Your argument is invalid.

There's a worship of cows, which if allowed to breed in significantly higher numbers than can be culled will cause the ozone layer to something something. As one wit said, "Kill them before they fart and everything will be OK".

Actually, there is stuff on the interwebs (Peer reviewed? Maybe.) which contends that termites have the biggest global output of methane.

In India the government has wide powers of eminent domain. Without the convenience of government organization and its powers of eminent domain to force unwilling holdouts to sell, it would difficult if not impossible for private organizations to get the land for big projects. It’s not at all clear that a “free market” in land would lead to anything but the forced dispossession of hundreds of thousands and even millions of poor farmers and their families.

Anyone else do a double take when you read this? The problem of forced dispossession is solved by eminent domain? Say what?

Yeah, it's a bit weird to claim that officials are corrupt so they should get power to force you to sell land, to protect you from vile capitalists (to which you don't want to sell land so they are unable to build their big project).

I mean weird like "doesn't make sense", not weird like "something you don't see every day". Sadly.

In India the government has wide powers of eminent domain. Without the convenience of government organization and its powers of eminent domain to force unwilling holdouts to sell, it would difficult if not impossible for private organizations to get the land for big projects. It’s not at all clear that a “free market” in land would lead to anything but the forced dispossession of hundreds of thousands and even millions of poor farmers and their families.

Anyone else do a double take when you read this? The problem of forced dispossession is solved by eminent domain? Say what?

Yeah, it's a bit weird to claim that officials are corrupt so they should get power to force you to sell land, to protect you from vile capitalists (to which you don't want to sell land so they are unable to build their big project).

I mean weird like "doesn't make sense", not weird like "something you don't see every day". Sadly.

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I also fail to see how this reaches the level of "international concern" and certainly not more so than Syria. MAYBE an argument could be made if it were about government corruption, but certainly not their real estate._________________lolgov. 'cause where we're going, you don't have civil liberties.